Instant Ragi Dosa

Continuing with my Instant recipes with this Instant Ragi Dosa. It is an instant dosa or crepe made with rava or semolina and ragi flour (finger millet flour).

As much as I love Bangalore, I also love getting out of Bangalore once in a while. There are but only a few roads that lead out. One of them is the Mysore road. I'm not too fond of the Bangalore-Mysore highway. Too many speed breakers and way too many vehicles. Barely feels like you have left Bangalore. But it has some silver lining, in the form of the various eating joints all along the way. There is this Kamat restaurant on the way where I first ate the Ragi Dosa. And it was love at first bite. Crispy dosa served with some coconut chutney. I'd never imagined Ragi could taste sooo good.

I'd had ragi in the form of Ragi Rotti or the Ragi Mudde, but never the Ragi Dosa. I simply loved it and when we came back, I was off to buy Ragi Flour to make it. Ragi Dosa is made exactly like the Rava Dosa, only the rice flour is replaced with ragi flour.

Ragi Dosa is perfect for those mornings when you haven't planned ahead for breakfast. All you do is mix stuff together and throw them on a hot griddle or tava. Yup no spreading it with love like the regular Dosa or pancake, you have to throw it on and let it take the shape it likes. No obsessing over the round shape.

It is also perfect for that 5pm hunger of mine. A great alternative to all that fried stuff around.

Making awesomely crispy Ragi Dosa requires patience, something I lack, so sometimes I'm just okay with soft ones. But I have the following tips to making a great Ragi Dosa. The same work for Rava Dosa as well.

Mix and make the dosa immediately. Do not leave it to soak. Soaking allows the rava or semolina to soak up all the water and it won't get crisp.

The batter needs to be thin. Make a few and try, you will know if you need to add more water. The consistency should be similar to that of buttermilk.

Pour the batter when the tava or the griddle is really hot and then lower the heat and leave it to crisp up.

Don't skimp on the oil. The dosa needs oil to crisp up, at least 1-2 tsp per Dosa. Oil-less Ragi Dosa is just not as tasty.

I add onions, curry leaves, cumin seeds, coriander leaves and chilli. A well seasoned Ragi Dosa does not even need any accompaniments, it tastes delicious on its own. All these are optional and you can leave them out to make a plain Ragi Dosa

Method:

Mix together all the ingredients except oil and whisk until free of lumpsHeat a tava and grease itPour spoonfuls of the batter on the tavaAllow it to cook on low flameSpoon oil on the dosaOnce the dosa is cooked, it will leave the sides of the tava, else use a spatula to loosen the dosa from the tavaFlip and cook for 1 minuteServe hot with chutney